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Two years ago, when homes in Albuquerque sold just because they were for sale, there was little need to worry about the details.

Not today.

"The condition and how the house is presented are extremely important today," said Jim Salazar, president of Vaughan Company Realtors in Albuquerque. "It wasn't important two or three years ago, because there was such a demand for residential properties."

The need to make homes on the market shine comes as the competition in the Albuquerque market grows more fierce.

There are 5,919 active listings of single-family homes on the open market in the metro area, according to data released last week by the Albuquerque Metropolitan Board of Realtors. While that's risen by only 247 since June, it's 2,026 more than in January.

Homes are staying on the market an average of 74 days, a full two weeks longer than in July 2006.

Meanwhile, the number of single-family homes sold in the metro area last month dropped to 992, just 19 fewer than in June but 131 fewer than a year earlier, according to the Board of Realtors data.

Local real estate experts, however, continue to feel optimistic, if not a little baffled, by the continuing rise in home values throughout the metro area.

The median home price for single family homes — the price at which half of the homes sold for more and half for less — jumped to $214,900 in July. That's $13,400 more than in June and $23,000 more than in July 2006.

"Everyone, I think, is just trying to figure out how we have increasing inventory — twice as much as last year — and yet prices are still appreciating at a pretty good rate," said Scott Dean, chairman of the Board of Realtors. "I really think it speaks to just affordability in Albuquerque."

Consider, for example, Tucson, where the median sales price for the second quarter this year reached $250,000, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. Elsewhere, Phoenix homes sold for a median price $264,000, Las Vegas, Nev., homes sold for almost $308,000 and in Salt Lake City, homes sold for about $233,000.

Albuquerque's median price last month remains below the national median of $223,800 for the second quarter of the year.

Buying activity is expected to dry up even further in coming months as children return to school and families become less likely to enter the market, Dean said. But that also means families aren't inclined to move, likely reducing the number of listings on the market.

"We just keep seeing this increase in inventory, and we still see an increase in average and median prices," Dean said. "I'm waiting for them to meet and level off."

Also affecting buyers is the credit crunch on Wall Street that's causing the mortgage industry to tighten lending standards, Salazar said. "That will slow down the ability of a certain percentage of quality buyers to qualify for a mortgage," he said.

In the meantime, real estate agents are adjusting to both rising competition and, often, to the impatience of their home-selling clients.

Paul Chavez, marketing director for Coldwell Banker Legacy, which has 650 real estate agents in the metro area, said home sellers often enter the market with unrealistic expectations.

"Everybody wants to sell their home quickly. When you first put your home on the market, you have a high degree of hope and anticipation," Chavez said. "What we try to do is say, `This is what the supply and demand is in your price range.' It's better to give them all the information up front.

"In previous market conditions, we didn't have to do that. Now we have to say, `Look, to be realistic in pricing and expectations on your time on the market, here's what your options are.' It may mean putting your home on the market at a slightly lower price than you anticipated."

Agents are also using more marketing tools, such as virtual Internet tours and online video commercials of homes — tools used sparingly in the past that are now used on almost all of Coldwell Banker's listings, Chavez said.

An automatic notification service that was used mostly by prospective home buyers seeking market data is now being used for home sellers as way of keeping track of the competition, Chavez said.

The competitiveness of the local market varies by both location and price range, he said. There are fewer buyers of million-dollar homes now, while homes in the low $100,000 range are easier to sell, Chavez said.

Regardless, experts confirm that the market is changing. And the more attention paid to your home, the better.

"I think that it's really back to the basics. Before 2005 or 2006 markets, people . . . didn't have to stage the home as well as they probably would have in a slower market," Dean said.

"I think people are just getting back to paying more attention to `Do we have weeds in the yard? What's the curb appeal look like?.' Making it look more like a model home than one in family pictures."